Car tuning tips and mods.

The spark is quite literally the life of the engine. A good strong spark makes the difference between thorough combustion and a misfire. Spark plug technology has come a long way over the last few years. First we will look back at the “good old days”.

 The components of a spark plug are primarily the tip, the insulation and the electrode. The spark needs to jump the air gap from the tip to the electrode. The bigger this gap the larger the spark will be and the better combustion will be. However too large a gap and you will have trouble getting enough current to jump the gap. Setting the gap size was very critical but with the advent of modern production methods most come correctly set up from the factory.

After time the tip and electrode will become glazed and this can inhibit conductivity. To combat this problem a clean up with a stiff wire brush will help keep things in tip top condition. Check the ceramic electrode insulator for cracking or tracking. Tracking will be manifest with a black sooty mark. If you spot either they need replacing.

The colour of the tip will tell you a lot about your engine. If it is oily and black this would suggest that the engine is running too rich. If it is a light grey soot which covers it you are running too lean. The ideal colour is a very light non oily black powder coating.

 Modern plugs are made from Iridium and platinum and this allows a much thinner electrode and tip which means the spark is thinner but can be longer. These plugs also require little to no maintenance and will last for 40,000 miles or so.

There are also a number of multi electrode plugs around and split electrodes. The multi plugs seem to be a good idea but in reality the spark can only travel over 1 at a time (path of least resistance) so the only benefit is a longer life as you have 4 times the surface area. Split electrodes on the other hand mean that more of the spark is exposed. The little nick in the tip allows the spark to ignite the fuel/air mix at the very top center rather than at an edge.

In the real world you will not notice much of an improvement or difference between a good copper core plug and a fancy multi tip one. If your car specified platinum or iridium you should only use these. Plugs are temperature rated, get this wrong and you risk premature ignition which is really bad for your engine. 

Some engines have separate coil packs for each plug other use just 1 coil. Increasing the coil output will usually mean a much stronger and more reliable spark allowing you to increase the plug gap.